Oh, I know. Silos are the bane of businesses’ existences. “Down with the silos!” the departments cry. They’re right to raise a ruckus. Those silos do no good. They are not the silos of which I speak. I refer to ones that are essential to email marketing success.

1. Silo for segmentation.

Your customers buy from you for varying reasons. One may need your software to solve a workflow issue. Another buys it because your product reduces inefficiences. They can get to the work that matters faster when they use it. Others enjoy it because it’s the easiest software they’ve yet to find.

In addition, your customers are not at the same stage of the purchasing journey. Some are ready to buy immediately. Others require more nurturing. They’re like the baby bean sprout your seven-year-old nephew is growing in his first-grade class. It needs sunshine, water, and some TLC for it to mature.

Other segments include geography, demographics, and position within the company. By segmenting your lists, you can send the right email to the right people.

2. Silo for personalization.

Just because you’ve segmented your lists doesn’t mean you’ve yet to achieve personalization. I’ve been dropped into some segment only to receive an email addressed to “Dear Mr. Feldman.” The first time was slightly amusing; subsequent incidents have released the wrath of the vicious unsubscribe.

Basically, make sure you add contact information and personal details so that you address people correctly and in the right manner. Your email campaigns, not to mention your email recipients, will thank you.

3. Silo for special events, offers, and holidays.

If you use email marketing automation tools, you may think you can just add extra emails for your special events and holiday promotions. Not so; you’ll only find your emails left unread. People have limits when it comes to how many emails they want to receive from you in a single day.

You can create isolated campaigns for your offers and events, but those campaigns probably should be used in place of existing automated messaging. Another option is to edit your existing email campaigns and add elements pertinent to the event, offer, or holiday.

4. Silo for testing.

Repeat after me: I will never, ever send an untested email to everyone in my email database. You should always run a pilot program when starting a new email marketing initiative. In addition, you should run simultaneous tests with split A/B testing to see which messages perform better than others. Once you have some results, you can outline a plan for sending the campaign – remember to segment and personalize it! – to your entire list.

5. Silo for reporting.

Not all numbers are created equal, and not all numbers need to be reported to everyone. While you should have access to all the data and be able to respond to requests for information, you should first ensure you’re monitoring the metrics that matter. Those metrics may vary from campaign to campaign, but make sure you know what they are prior to starting it.

If you want to be more successful with your email marketing programs, view your customers and emails as grains. You wouldn’t place them into a single silo. You’d put them in several so that you send the right email at the right time to the right customer.